Media publications on Gallup Report lack facts – Pratt

Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior, has descended heavily on media organizations who published that Ghana is the third most corrupt country in the world with regards to the Gallup poll on corruption perception index.

Some media outlets in the country reported that Ghana has attained the highest status of corruption as it scored 89 percent behind Czech Republic and Lithuania, beating Nigeria and other African countries.

The survey which was conducted in April and May 2012, on 129 countries, viewed corruption as widespread in some free press countries for which Ghana is part.

Government subsequently rebutted the publications, explaining that “Government notes with satisfaction that Ghana was classified in the “Free press” Countries category alongside established democracies like the United States of America, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia and Norway -a development which Gallup acknowledges as an “indicator of good governance and development”. Ghana was also one of only two countries in Africa to be classified as “Free Press” countries, the other being South Africa.

“While government encourages media organizations to take advantage of the unfettered media freedom that exists in the country, it also wishes to admonish them to ensure that truth, accuracy, balance and professionalism are adhered to in their work,” government noted in a statement.

Speaking on Radio Gold’s current affairs programme, Alhaji and Alhaji, with Alhassan Suhuyini Saturday, Kwesi Pratt urged the media to refrain from misleading publications that have the tendency of plunging the country into chaos.

“Yesterday, a lot of newspapers came with screaming headlines that ‘Ghana is the third most corrupt country in the world’…if you go to the source document which is Gallup polls on perception survey report, there is absolutely nothing like that,” he revealed.

According to Kwesi Pratt, the survey ranked Ghana as the third country with free press, indicating that the country has attained good governance and development status.

He wondered why some media outlets in the country “decided to pick on a small part of the survey” which talks about the perception of the citizenry on corruption, when the report praises Ghana for promoting good governance.

“Since this is a corruption perception index in countries where people are likely to speak, the perception is likely to go up…if you come to countries where people are not free at all to talk, it is difficult to get the views of the people on corruption perception. The picture for now is that the Ghanaian case has not gotten worse. If you take a country like Nigeria, Nigeria is getting worst. Many other African countries are getting worse”, he explained.

“My question is why would Ghanaians take a report such as this one, which is actually congratulating the government of Ghana for being in the lead of countries which have indications of good governance and development, say and write the kind of things we heard and read?” he quizzed.

He also disclosed that, because the Gallup report is a perception index, the misleading publications and commentaries about Ghana’s corruption status will feature in the next report “in spite of the fact that they were absolutely baseless and lacked facts”.